THE  DUTCH  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS 

IN 

THE    MAKING    OF    AMERICA 


Prepared  and  Printed  by  Order  of 

HOLLAND  SOCIETY  OF  NEW  YORK 

September  1921 


WILLIAM  ELLIOT  GRIFFIS,  L.  H.  D.,  Author 


The  Dutch  of  The  Netherlands 
in    The    Making    of   America 

Prepared  and  Printed  by  order  of 

Holland  Society  of  New  York 

September  1921. 
WILLIAM  ELLIOT  GRIFFIS,  L.  H.  IV  Author  '" 

THE  UNITED  STATES  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS 

WAS  THE  MODEL  AND  GUIDE  FOR  THE 

UNITED  STATES  OF  AMERICA. 

Our  country  is  a  federal  republic  of  forty-eight  states,  in 
which  religion,  education,  the  press  and  trade  are  free  and  of 
which  the  Supreme  Court  is  the  permanent  feature.  Our 
flag  pictures  both  our  past  history  and  our  future  progress. 
The  red  and  white  stripes  tell  of  the  thirteen  original  colonies, 
made  into  an  independent  nation,  on  July  4,  1776.  The  stars 
in  the  blue  field,  increased  from  thirteen  to  forty-eight,  tell 
of  a  future,  in  which  our  flag  may  yet  have  a  hundred  stars. 

Neither  our  flag  nor  our  history  can  be  explained  from 
European  feudalism,  landed  nobles,  empires,  thrones,  king 
doms,  or  State  Churches,  for  we  have  none  of  these  in  our 
republic.  The  United  States  of  the  Netherlands  (1579-1795) 
give  the  chief  explanation  for  the  flag  and  the  form  of 
government  of  the  United  States  of  America.  Our  second 
president,  one  of  our  most  learned  Americans,  John  Adams, 
wrote:  "The  originals  of  the  two  republics  (Dutch  and 
American)  are  so  much  alike  that  a  page  from  one  seems  a 
transcript  from  the  other." 

In  the  Dutch  Republic  were  written  charters  and  constitu 
tions,  a  district  especially  set  apart  for  the  Federal  Govern 
ment,  and  not  belonging  to  any  State,  like  our  Columbia  on 
the  Potomac,  a  supreme  court  and  a  flag  of  red  and  white 
stripes.  These  stripes  showed  that  each  one  of  the  seven 
of  the  United  States  of  the  Netherlands,  whether  large  or 
small,  rich  or  poor,  whether  small  in  area,  like  our  Delaware 


680875 


and  Rhode  Island,  or  large  like  our  Empire  State  or  Texas, 
had  the  same  vote  in  the  Senate. 

When  the  King  of  Spain,  their  overlord,  would  not  listen 
to  their  petition  of  redress,  the  Dutch  formed  a  federal  union 
in  1579  at  Utrecht,  and  in  July;  1581  issued  their  Declaration 
of  Independence,  nearly  two  centuries  before  our  own.  Over 
two  centuries  before,  in  1379,  in  a  congress  of  delegates,  they 
had  compelled  their  ruler  to  sign  "The  Great  Privilege"  con 
taining  the  principle  and  guarantee  of  "No  taxation  without 
consent",  or  "representation". 

In  the  Republic  thus  formed,  in  1579,  all  religions  were 

tolerated.      Conscience   and   the  press   were    free.     Here   the 

oppressed  and  exiled  of  every  land  found  welcome  and  home. 

The  free 'public  schools,  sustained  by  taxation,  were  open  to 

'•  i*H,  to-  gfrl£  :as  u;ell  as  boys. 

:r  -,  : ,;  -.T-he-Pilgrim  Fathers,  cast  out  from  England,  the  Wal- 
'••locrfrs* a-nct  felenlirtgs^*  driven  out  of  the  Belgic  Netherlands  by 
the  Spaniards,  the  Huguenot  fugitives  from  France,  exiles 
from  Ireland  and  Italy,  many  of  the  British  Puritan  leaders, 
the  founders  of  Massachusetts,  Rhode  Island  and  Connecticut, 
when  persecuted  by  their  State,  Churches  or  peoples,  received 
shelter  in  Holland.  It  is  a  striking  fact  that  nearly  every  one 
of  the  military  men  in  the  Amierican  colonies  before  1650 
had  served  in  the  armies  of  the  Dutch  Republic.  There,  in  a 
land  full  of  modern  ideas,  they  were  educated  in  political, 
social,  military  and  legal  science. 

No  other  country  in  Europe  was  then  so  free  as  the 
Netherlands,  or  the  people  more  full  of  spirit.  As  our  Ben 
jamin  Franklin,  who,  after  studying  the  Holland  Leyden  jar, 
invented  the  lightning  rod,  wrote:  "In  love  of  liberty  and 
bravery  in  defense  of  it  she  (the  Dutch  Republic)  has  been 
our  great  example".  In  other  things  also,  the  fathers  of  the 
.Revolution  and  of  the  Constitution  profited  by  the  experiences 
of  Holland  and  the  other  Dutch  states  in  their  federal  union 

One  of  the  troubles  of  federal  government  has  always 
been  to  maintain  in  balance  the  union  of  all  the -states  and 
prevent  secession,  for  the  strong  are  apt  to  dominate  over 
the  weak.  This  is  done,  in  part,  by  making  all  the  states 
equal  in  the  Senate.  In  1619,  in  the  Netherlands,  there  was 
attempted  secession  and  civil  war  was  imminent,  but  their 
Union  was  preserved;  for,  like  as  in  our  colonies,  later  in 
1776,  the  Dutch  people  had  become,  not  only  a  league  ot 
states,  but  a  nation. 

Nearly  all  the  words  which  we  use  in  the  army,  concerning 
the  flag,  in  patriotism,  and  for  quick  movement  and  lively 
action,  are  Holland  in  origin.  There  are  many  amusing  il 
lustrations  of  this,  of  which  we  give  only  one.  Many  inns 
in  eastern  England  were  long  ago  named,  when  Dutch  and 


British  were  allies,  "The  League  of  Seven  States",  after  the 
Dutch  Republic.  When  this  was  forgotten  and  the  faded 
letters  were  repainted,  a  century  or  two  afterwards,  the  signs 
read  "The  Leg  and  Seven  Stars." 

Among  our  very  many  inheritances  from  the  Netherlands 
are  some  things  that  influence  our  lives  every  day.  We  have 
a  standard  gauge  for  roads  and  railways,  which,  from  Holland 
and  New  York,  has  become  the  rule  for  the  whole  country. 
In  driving,  the  English  turn  to  the  left,  while  we  turn  to  the 
right.  Many  quires  of  paper  have  been  filled  with  writing, 
and  periodicals  with  print,  to  explain  this  difference  in  custom, 
which  needs  no  explanation.  Proof  is  better  than  argument. 
To  "turn  to  the  right,  as  the  law  directs",  was  the  rule  in 
the  Dutch  Republic. 

Even  today,  one  can  read  on  street  corners  and  roads, 
all  over  the  Netherlands  "Rechts  houden",  which  means  Keep 
to  the  right.  We  have  read,  in  the  written  law  of  at  least 
four  Dutch  cities,  this  municipal  regulation.  In  the  Middle 
States  of  America,  it  was  a  common  sight  during  our  boy 
hood  days. 

Four-wheeled  vehicles  were  numerous  in  the  Netherlands, 
long  before  one  of  these  was  seen  in  England — into  which 
they  were  first  imported  about  1584.  Before  that  date,  carts 
were  used,  even  by  Queen  Elizabeth  for  her  personal  belong 
ings,  while  she  and  her  ladies  rode  on  horseback.  The  Pil 
grims,  the  Dutch  and  William  Penn's  people,  the  Walloons 
and  Huguenots,  by  way  of  the  Republic  which  sheltered  them, 
brought  us  more  in  ideas  and  customs  from  Holland  than 
from  England. 

Almost  all  the  founders  of  the  colonies  north  of  the 
Potomac  sojourned  in  the  Dutch  Republic  for  a  longer  or 
shorter  time.  Even  Lord  Baltimore  was  the  descendant  of 
a  Netherlander,  and  William  Penns'  mother  was  Dutch.  One 
cannot  read  the  writings  of  the  American  statesmen  or  scholars 
of  the  eighteenth  century,  Hamilton,  Adams,  Jay,  Jefferson, 
Franklin,  Madison  and  others,  without  seeing  how  well  they 
had  studied  the  great  Dutch  statesmen,  lawyers,  theologians, 
physicians  and  men  of  science,  and  profited  by  the  experiences 
of  the  older  country. 

It  was  in  Holland's  heroic  age,  that  our  four  old  Middle 
States  were  settled.  Washington  Irving  himself  who  wrote, 
in  a  funny  way,  about  the  Dutch  of  New  Netherland,  confes 
sed  that  what  many  people  and  even  writers  of  history  took 
as  serious  history,  he  meant  as  a  joke;  but  persons  with  an 
English  cast  of  mind  only,  whether  native  or  foreign,  are 
slow  to  understand  or  appreciate  American  fun. 

Such  writers,  as  has  been  said,  have  succeeded  in  casting 
a  glow  over  the  early  history  of  New  York,  that  is  more 


humorous  than  luminous.  One  can  readily  realize  how  the 
Pilgrims  or  Puritans  would  have  fared,  if  Irving  had  taken 
hold  of  them  first,  with  his  caricatures  and  delightfully  funny 
sketches  and  burlesques. 

Except  in  the  minds  of  the  uneducated  or  the  prejudiced, 
the  Dutch  are  no  more  "  funny"  than  those  who  speak  the 
English  language.  It  would  be  as  hard  to  understand  modern 
civilization  if  we  left  out  the  Dutch  Republic,  as  to  think  of 
our  noble  line  of  presidents  without  Martin  Van  Buren  and 
Theodore  Roosevelt,  both  of  direct  Dutch  ancestry,  and  others 
with  Netherland  blood  in  them. 

Most  Anglo-Saxon  words,  of  which  we  boast,  were  Hol 
land  before  they  were  English.  The  word  "stripe"  meaning 
in  old  Dutch  not  a  welt  or  whip  mark,  but  a  band  of  color, 
was  used  in  the  Netherland  flag  to  represent  their  several 
states  and  so  was  adopted  to  signify  our  original  states  in 
our  flag. 

Such  words  as  "crack",  "hustle",  "scout",  "boss",  "golf", 
and  scores  of  terms  relating  to  ships  and  boats,  land  sports, 
and  good  things  to  eat,  like  "cookies"  and  "waffles",  are  of 
Dutch  origin;  for  n^any  inventions  and  modern  ideas  were 
known  in  Holland  before  they  were  heard  of  in  the  rest 
of  Europe.  In  many  cases  these  were  brought  from  Holland 
to  America  by  the  Pilgrims  and  Puritans,  as  well  as  by  the 
Dutch. 

St.  Nicholas,  the  patron  Saint  of  Netherland  children, 
Santa  Klaus,  came  with  the  first  ships  from  Holland  and 
still  puts  his  gifts  for  children  at  Christmas  in  the  stockings 
hung  at  the  fire-place  in  thousands  of  American  homes. 

What  we  are  to  study  for  the  Making  of  America  is 
not  so  much  what  was  or  happened  in  the  eighteenth,  nine 
teenth  or  twentieth  centuries,  as  what  were  the  shaping  in 
fluences  in  the  formative  days  which  made  the  American. 

The  Dutch  introduced  the  first  free  public  schools  in 
America,  open  both  to  girls  and  boys,  not  boys  only,  in  New 
Netherland,  as  early  as  1628.  All  Americans  sought  to  read 
the  names  of  the  seven  Dutch  schoolmasters,  on  the  bronze 
tablet  at  the  south-east  corner  of  Washington  Square,  in  New 
York  City,  suggested  by  the  writer  and  reared  by  the  late 
Dr.  McCracken,  Chancellor  of  the  New  York  University, 
an  institution  which  was  built  chiefly  by  the  money  of  des 
cendants  of  the  New  Netherlands. 

When  our  Revolutionary  War  broke  out,  the  Netherlands 
understood  perfectly  what  it  was  all  about.  Over  fifty  Dutch 
books  and  pamphlets,  written  between  1770  and  1788,  in  the 
Athenaeum  Library  in  Boston,  show  this.  They  said  "Why ! 
these  Americans  are  fighting  for  the  same  reason  that  our 
fathers  did ;  that  is,  in  resisting  unjust  taxation." 


So  they  became  our  allies,  recognized  our  government, 
and  lent  us  millions  of  money  (which  when  repaid  in  1808, 
amounted  to  $14,000,000).  During  the  war,  fully  one  half 
of  the  armsi,  guns,  cannon,  powder  and  clothing  for  the 
Continental  army  came  from  the  Dutch  Island  of  St.  Eustatius 
in  the  West  Indies. 

There,  on  the  16th  of  November,  1776,  the  Dutch  gov 
ernor,  Johannes  de  Graeff,  after  reading  the  American  Dec 
laration  of  Independence,  ordered  the  first  foreign  salute  to 
the  American  flag.  This  was),  at  that  date,  exactly  like  the 
Dutch  naval  flag  and  without  stars,  though  with  thirteen 
instead  of  seven  stripes,  red  and  white.  Rodney,  the  British 
Admiral,  thought  it  was  far  more  important  to  go  and  take 
St.  Eustatius,  as  the  source  of  American  supplies!,  than  to  go 
to  the  aid  of  Lord  Cornwallis  at  Yorktown.  He  captured 
there  twenty-four  American  ships  and  two  thousand  American 
sailors. 

During  the  Civil  War,  no  Confederate  bonds  were  sold 
in  the  Netherlands. 

When  the  English  Universities,  from  1664,  were  closed 
to  all  but  State  Churchmen,  almost  every  one  of  the  leaders 
of  the  English  Whigs,  besides  Scotqh,  Wdsh  and  Irish, 
especially  those  like  our  friends  in  Parliament  who  had  op 
posed  King  George  III  and  his  Ministers,  went  to  study  in 
the  five  Dutch  Universities.  In  one  alone,  at  Leyden,  the  old 
home  of  the  Pilgrim  Fathers,  from  1572  to  1772,  five  thousand 
students  from  the  British  Isles  and  America  were  educated. 
Among  these  was  John  Quincy  Adams,  who  became  President. 

The  Dutch  Republic  was  the  birthplace  of  the  Laws  of 
Nations.  At  the  time  of  the  Peace  Conference,  in  honor  of 
the  great  Netherlander,  Hugo  Grotius,  called  the  Father  of 
International  Law,  the  American  delegation  laid  a  silver  gilt 
wreath,  the  gift  of  our  government),  on  his  tomb  at  Delft. 

In  1920,  the  Netherlanders,  led  by  Queen  Wilhelmina,  who 
received  the  visiting  Americans,  in  her  residence,  celebrated 
during  one  week  the  stay  of  the  Pilgrim  Fathers  in  the  Re 
public  for  twelve  years,  where  printing  was  free  and  their 
books  were  published.  There  are  more  records  in  Holland  of 
these  Free  Churchmen  and  Pilgrims,  from  1580  to  1650. 
than  in  England.  Almost  all  of  these  from  the  Dutch  ar 
chives  were  published  in  1920,  a  copy  being  given  to  each 
American  delegate. 

Nearly  all  the  pictorial  art  in  England,  before  1750,  was 
from  Dutch  painters,  and  even  Shakespeare's  tomb  at  Strat 
ford  was  carved  by  a  Dutchman.  Nearly  all  the  mechanical 
trades,  banks  and  manufactures  of  fine  goods  in  the  United 
Kingdom  were  introduced  by  the  Netherlanders  and  the  drain 
age  of  the  eastern  counties,  which  turned  most  of  the  fens 
into  fertile  fields,  was  the  work  of  Dutch  engineers. 


The  Netherlanders  led  in  commerce,  exploration,  enter 
prise  and  invention  and  it  was  at  such  a  time,  when  they 
were  in  the  van  of  civilization,  that  the  Dutch  settled  New 
Netherland,  that  is,  New  York,  New  Jersey,  Pennsylvania 
and  Delaware,  nad  laid  the  Dutch  foundations  in  our  United 
States. 

These  old  "Middle  States"  have  always  been  first  in 
those  modern  ideas,  such  as  freedom  of  religion,  popular 
education  of  boys  and  girls,  improved  methods  of  transpor 
tation),  useful  inventions,  and  especially  in  those  political 
measures  which  strengthen  the  Union  and  hold  the  country 
together.  In  short  these  old  American  "middle  states"  have 
always  been  the  leaders  in  steadying  and  guiding  the  pro 
gress  of  the  American  ship  of  state. 

The  commercial  greatness  of  New  York  City  was  begun 
by  the  Dutch  and  the  city  flag  bears  the  colors,  orange,  white 
and  blue,  of  William  the  Silent,  the  first  stadholder,  or  presi 
dent,  of  the  Dutch  Republic,  who  was  called  the  Father  of 
his  Country. 

All  three  of  the  greatest  American  prophets  of  spiritual 
liberty  and  of  freedom  for  the  mind,  as  well  as  of  the  body, 
Roger  Williams,  William  Penn  and  Thomas  Jefferson,  were 
students  of  Dutch  and  took  as  their  example  the  founder 
of  the  Dutch  Republic,  William  the  Silent,  whom  we  love 
to  compare  with  Washington.  Roger  Williams  and  William 
Penn,  like  most  of  the  Pilgrims,  who  lived  in  Leyden,  (1610- 
1620)  could  speak  Dutch  or  write  it.  Penn  especially  carried 
out  the  Dutch  ideas  of  prison  reform,  and  fair  treatment 
of  the  Indians. 

The  Pilgrims  brought  over  from  Holland  the  Dutch 
customs  of  civil  marriage  and  the  registration  of  deeds  and 
mortgages,  which  of  course  the  Dutch  started  in  New  York. 
"The  Scarlet  Letter",  of  which  Hawthorne  wrote  in  romance, 
is  a  symbol  of  the  progress  of  civilization  as  led  by  the 
Dutch,  for  they  substituted  a  capital  letter  to  be  worn  on  the 
dress  in  place  of  branding  on  the  flesh  with  a  red  hot  iron. 
The  Dutch  led  Europe  in  prison  reform.  No  country  did 
or  does  excel  the  Dutch  Netherlands  in  hospitals,  organized 
help  and  charities,  and  they  were  so  started  in  New  Nether- 
land  in  the  earliest  times. 

Look  at  the  first  ships  that  came  to  American  shores, 
and  note  what  they  stood  for,  and  the  kind  of  colonists  that 
followed  and  came  to  settle.  We  shall  find  out  what  these 
people  represented  by  the  ships  and  flags  brought  with  them  ; 
for  as  they  were  in  Europe,  so  would  they  be  in  America, 
with  the  same  tools  in  their  hands,  and  the  same  ideas  in 
their  heads. 

Wrhen  the  Turks,  in  A.   D.  1453,  took  Constantinople, 


they  closed  the  overland  trade  routes  in  Asia,  which  con 
tinent  was  then  much  richer  than  Europe.  So  a  new  route 
by  sea,  to  India  and  China,  had  to  be  found.  In  doing  this, 
they  discovered,  after  several  voyages,  the  coast  lines  of  the 
continents  of  Asia  and  Africa.  The  Portuguese  led  but  the 
Dutch  followed  eastward  and  found  Japan  and  Java.  When 
Mendez  Pinto  wrote  his  book  of  adventures  in  the  Far  East, 
people  thought  he  was  a  great  liar.  Our  word  "mendacious" 
comes  from  his  first  name.  But,  like  Marco  Polo,  whom 
the  funny  fellows  dubbed  "Signer  Millions",  because  in  de 
scribing  China  he  used  this  word  often,  he  told  much  and 
strange  truth. 

It  was  thrilling  to  know  that,  in  spite  of  the  Turks,  and 
without  the  aid  of  camels  and  caravans*,  but  guided  only  by 
the  sun  and  stars  and  "God's  finger" — the  magnetic  needle, 
brought  from  China — men  could  find  their  way  on  the  sea 
path. 

Nevertheless,  the  time  and  cost  of  these  long  southern 
voyages,  besides  the  heat  and  the  dangers  of  shipwreck,  were 
so  great  that  men  began  to  think  of  finding  a  shorter  route. 
It  was  the  great  Netherlander,  M creator,  who  made  the  map 
of  the  world  that  aided  men  to  understand  geography  and 
sail  in  foreign  seas. 

The  Dutch  formed  the  first  Asiatic  Society  for  the  study 
of  the  countries,  peoples  and  languages  of  the  Mother  Con 
tinent.  Being  in  the  van  of  science,  valor  and  enterprise, 
the  Congress,  or  States-General  of  the  Republic,  offered  a 
reward  of  twenty-five  thousand  guilders  ($10,000,  or  about 
$50,000  in  the  values  of  today)  to  any  one  who  should  find 
the  North-East  passage  to  India,  around  Norway  and  Russia. 
A  cold  route  under  the  Arctic  circle  was  this  compared 
to  that  over  the  equator  and  through  the  tropics,  in  the  hot 
salt  seas  of  the  south !  Could  any  ship  plough  its  way  past 
icebergs  and  through  thousands  of  leagues  of  ice,  with  the 
Aurora  Borealis  by  night,  but  with  no  companions  but  seals, 
polar  bears  and  walruses? 

The  Dutch  East  India  Company  was  fortunate  in  finding 
an  Englishman!,  a  "pilot",  out  of  service,  as  a  master  or  sea- 
captain  was  then  called,  named  Henry  Hudson.  He,  like  some 
of  the  Dutch  merchants,  had  made  voyages  to  Archangel  in 
Russia,  while  the  Dutch  sailors  had  been  to  Nova  Zembla 
and  had  named  Spitzbergen  and  other  places  in  the  Arctic 
seas.  The  very  word  pilot  is  Dutch,  and  the  first  statue 
raised  in  honor  of  a  pilot  was  at  Flushing  in  Zeeland,  in  1919. 
The  Half  /Moon,  or  the  silver  crescent,  which  the  fierce 
men  of  Zealand,  who  fought  for  independence  against  the 
Spaniards,  wore  on  their  hats,  had  become  a  symbol  of  daring, 
valor,  success  and  victory.  So  the  ship  fitted  out  for  the  Far 
East  took  its  name  from  this  silver  badge. 


The  place  of  farewell  to  ships  sailing  for  the  ends  of  the 
earth  was  at  the  Shriekers'  Tower  in  Amsterdam,  which 
is  still  standing  and  in  use.  There  the  women  gathered  to 
weep  and  sob  aloudi,  while  the  sailors,  according  to  old 
custom,  threw  their  hats  in  the  water — to  signify  that  they 
intended  not  to  come  back  to  get  them  again,  until  they  had 
succeeded. 

The  Half  Moon,  on  which  these  brave  fellows  set  out, 
was  so  small,  that  when,  in  1909,  for  the  Hudson-Fulton 
celebration,  a  ship,  of  the  exact  size  and  model  of  the  original 
Half  Moon  of  1609,  had  been  built  in  Holland,  the  entire  craft 
was  carried  on  part  of  the  front  deck  of  a  steamer  of  the 
Holland-America  line. 

When,  in  the  arctic  seas,  the  way  seemed  blocked  by 
vast  ice  fields,  floating  icebergs  and  darkening  tempests  and 
his  men  were  ready  to  mutiny,  Hudson  turned  the  ship's 
prow  across  the  Atlantic,  westward  to  find  a  new  route  to 
China. 

So,  going  along  the  American  coast  from  Maine  to  the 
present  Virginia  and  turning  north  again  and  finding  no 
passage  to  China  a  new  chapter  in  modern  history  was  opened 
when  the  Half-Moon  entered  in  September  1609,  the  lordly 
river,  which,  never  until  1664,  bore  Hudson's  name.  Going 
up  as  far  as  Albany  the  Half-Moon  sent  boats  to  where 
Troy  now  stands,  but  the  rapids  showed  that  China  did  not 
He  that  way,  so  the  ship  returned. 

A  path  to  the  Indies,  had  not  been  found,  but  the  most 
important  of  all  the  Atlantic  sea-gates  into  the  North  American 
continent  had  been  discovered.  And  soon  the  Nether  landers 
began  to  settle  there  on  the  banks  of  the  Great  River,  the 
River  of  the  Mountains. 

At  the  very  entrance  into  New  York  Bay  stands  an 
island  named  after  the  federal  republic,  Staten,  or  the  Island 
of  the  (Seven)  States — as  many  in  number  as  the  stripes  in 
the  national  naval  flag  that  flew  at  the  Half  Moon's  mizzen 
mast.  At  the  peak  was  the  orange,  white  and  blue,  now  re 
produced  in  the  flag  of  the  City  of  New  York.  The  ensign 
of  the  Chartered  East  India  Company  flew  at  the  other  mast. 
The  striped  flag  was  the  naval  emblem  of  the  federal  republic. 
It  was  under  the  colors  of  a  Republic  that  the  Netherland 
settlers  anchored  off  Manhattan. 

Even  before  1609,  hundreds  of  ships  had  crossed  the 
Atlantic,  for  exploration  and  discovery,  for  furs  or  fish, 
or  for  the  kidnapping  of  slaves.  Later,  when  commerce 
was  well  established  there  were  pirates,  buccaneers  and  filibus 
ters.  The  usual  route  from  Western  Europe  was  by  the  way 
of  the  Azore  Islands  and  the  West  Indies.  These  vessels  had 
brought  Spanish,  Portuguese,  French,  English  or  other  settlers. 


In  the  seventeenth  century  was  the  great  era  of  coloni 
zation,  when  the  Dutch,  Walloons,  Flemings,  Germans,  Swiss, 
French,  Scotch,  Irish,  Swedes*,  Finns  and  Africans  came  to 
dwell  within  the  limits  of  the  United  States  and  to  form  our 
nation,  which  is  not  a  New  England  or  a  New  Netherland 
or  a  New  Virginia,  but  a  NEW  EUROPE.  These  built  up 
the  country  and  made  history. 

The  true  colonists  were  not  fur  traders,  fishermen  or 
rovers  who  roamed  the  sea  or  were  vagrants  in  the  forests, 
or  who  went  back,  but  those  who  stayed  on  the  ground,  made 
homes,  tilled  the  soil  and  settled  for  good. 

What  did  each  of  these  exploring  or  colonizing  ships 
represent  ?  As  emigrants,  what  did  these  people  leave  behind  ? 
What  things,  visible  and  invisible,  what  ideas  and  institutions, 
did  they  bring  with  them? 

More  enduring  than  tools,  weapons,  inventions  or  furni 
ture,  each  set  of  colonists  brought  to  America  what  had 
been  in  their  heads  and  hearts  and  hands,  and  what  was 
characteristic  of  the  country  from  which  they  came  and  had 
long  been  before  their  eyes  and  in  those  of  their  fathers.  The 
sarrie  ideas,  notions  and  even  superstitutions  were  landed  on 
our  shores.  It  was  their  training  that  was  to  tell. 

The  habits,  customs  and  forms  of  government,  under 
which  they  had  grown  up  from  childhood  would,  as  far  as 
possible,  be  reproduced  in  America.  The  American  facilities, 
resources,  climate,  food  and  surroundings  would  at  first  in 
fluence  them;  but  heredity  would,  in  the  long  run,  tell  with 
even  greater  power. 

The  spectres  of  the  brain,  that  lurked  in  the  back  of  their 
heads,  whether  relating  to  education,  religion,  politics,  law, 
social  customs,  dress  or  house  furnishing,  would  follow  with 
them.  If  in  Europe  they  put  people  in  prison  or  to  death 
for  their  religion,  or  for  what  they  called  witchcraft,  they 
would  be  likely  to  do  the  same  in  America. 

If,  in  their  old  home,  they  made  conscience  free  and 
put  science  against  superstition  and  had  public  schools  and 
free  printing  and  cozy  homes,  they  would  have  the  same 
minds,  things  and  customs  in  their  new  dwelling  place.  Their 
beliefs  would  direct  their  action  more  than  food,  soil  or 
climate. 

We  are  not  to  think  of  European  people  as  having  the 
ships  and  tools  of  our  day ;  but  as  they  were  then  in  the 
early  seventeenth  century.  Some  smart  fellows  did  come, 
expecting  to  dig  gold,  to  raise  silk,  to  make  tar  and  pitch 
in  New  York  as  well  as  in  North  Carolina,  to  get  sugar 
from  maple  trees  in  summer  as  well  as  in  winter,  to  conquer 
or  make  slaves  of  the  Indians,  to  live  like  wild  savages,  or 
to  get  rich  quickly  and  hasten  to  return  home  to  enjoy 
the  money  they  made  in  their  selfish  or  vile  way. 


Such  people,  with  their  notions,  could  never  have  made 
our  country,  nor  can  such  people  ever  turn  into  good  Ameri 
cans  now.  The  best  colonists  expect  to  stay  in  the  new 
country  to  which  they  come  and  do  their  part  in  obeying  its 
laws  and  building  it  up. 

Apart  from  the  personal  character  of  the  men  and  wo 
men  who  were  to  lay  the  foundations  of  our  republic,  we 
are  to  study  what  each  mother  country  or  fatherland  had,  or 
had  not,  or  could  give  to  their  children. 

Even  more  important  is  it  to  ask  what  things  were  wanted, 
or  could  be  made  to  \vork  on  the  new  continent.  What 
have  we  Americans  borrowed  and  made  ours,  and  what  have 
we  cast  away? 

After  a  trial  of  two  centuries  or  more,  our  fathers 
threw  aside  many  European  things.  But  what  did  they 
keep  or  add  to  with  American  ideas  is  the  question  which 
measures  the  influence  of  the  different  colonists  or  emigrants 
upon  our  country. 

They  found  that  for  the  new  age  and  land  in  their  ex 
periments  in  government,  religion  and  social  life,  such  things 
as  thrones,  crowns,  kings1,  emperors,  royal  courts,  political 
bishops,  feudalism,  titles  of  nobility,  all  heraldry  that  meant 
privilege,  and  State  churches  were  not  wanted.  They  rejected 
the  Inquisition,  any  interference  with  conscience,  the  ideas 
that  religion  was  the  affair  only  of  men  at  court,  education 
only  for  the  favored  few,  taxation  without  representation, 
flags  that  stood  not  for  the  people  as  a  nationi,  but  only  for 
kings  or  nobles,  and  the  making  of  wars  and  military  con 
scription  without  the  consent  of  the  people  and  government 
for  the  benefit  of  a  favored  few — all  these  they  cast  away. 

If  we  ask,  what  today  is  distinctive  of  American  civili 
zation,  we  shall  see  what  our  fathers  wanted  and  finally  made 
the  law  of  the  land,  chiefly  were  these :  self  government, 
public  schools  open  to  all,  freedom  of  conscience,  no  inter 
ference  in  religion,  a  federal  union,  first  of  colonies  and  then 
of  states,  each  one  large  or  small,  having  an  equal  vote  in 
the  Senate,  the  seat  of  the  nation's  government  separate  from 
any  state,  a  written  constitution,  a  Supreme  Court,  the  Judi 
ciary  being  the  permanent  element  in  the  government,  and  an 
executive  elected  by  the  people. 

Almost  every  one  of  these  features  were,  in  effect,  in 
the  Republic  of  the  United  States  of  the  Netherlands  from 
1581,  or  before,  so  that  we  borrowed  more  from  the  Dutch, 
for  our  federal  system,  than  from  any  other  people  or  country. 
There  is  scarcely  one  principle,  or  feature,  in  our  federal 
system  that  was  not  in  the  Netherlands  in  1609,  when  the 
Dutch  ship,  the  Half  Moon,  anchored  off  Manhattan  and 


the  Dutch  settlers  arrived  with  their  ideas  and  customs,   for 
they  were  not  fugitives  from  their  own  country. 

Almost  everything  that  is  distinctly  and  peculiarly  Ameri 
can,  seems  to  have  originated  in  the  Dutch  Republic  and 
was  brought  here,  not  only  by  the  Dutch  but  also  by  the 
Pilgrim  Fathers,  the  Liberal  Puritans,  the  Walloons  and 
Huguenots  and  the  British  Whigs,  nearly  all  of  whom  had 
lived  or  studied  in  Holland.  Every  nationality  has  contributed 
great  men  or  women,  or  some  helpful  element,  to  the  making 
of  the  United  States,  but  in  the  form  of  government,  muni 
cipal,  state  and  national,  in  what  is  distinctively  American, 
we  have  borrowed  more  from  the  Dutch  of  the  Netherlands 
than  from  any  other  people,  country  or  social  organization. 
These  were  the  great  ideas  which  the  Netherlanders  brought, 
with  religious  toleration  and  public  education  for  all  children, 
as  well  as  many  social  customs,  to  our  shores  which  aided 
so  permanently  in  the  Making  of  America  and  constitute  so 
many  of  the  foundation  stones. 

Printed  by  order  of 

HOLLAND  SOCIETY  OF  NEW,  YORK 
the   members   of    which   are   Americans — descendants    in    the 
male  line  of   New  Netherlanders  prior  to   1675. 


14  DAY  USE 

RETURN  TO  DESK  FROM  WHICH  BORROWED 

LOAN  DEPT. 


This  book  is  due  on  the  last  date  stamped  below,  or 
on  the  date  to  which  renewed. 
Renewed  books  are  subject  to  immediate  recall. 

«H<69MQ 

•T 

Y-\fi3 

3lOcP68WW 

REC'D  1_D 

OCT25'63-2PH 

SENT  ON  ILL 

JAN  2  7  1994 

U.C.BERKELEY 

i 

T  T~)  21  A    4O     4'fiS                                     General  Library 

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